1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to air conditioners, and more particularly, to an indoor unit in an air conditioner, which has an improved structure that can carry out a function of removal of room moisture while maintaining a constant temperature, and outputs different cooling or heating capacity; and an air conditioner therewith.
2. Background of the Related Art
The air conditioner, for cooling or heating a room, is in general provided with an indoor unit and an outdoor unit. The outdoor unit is provided with a compressor, an outdoor heat exchanger, and a flow control valve, and the indoor unit is provided with an expansion device and an indoor heat exchanger. The air conditioner having the components cools or heats the room depending on a flow direction of the refrigerant, which will be described in more detail.
When the room is cooled, gas refrigerant discharged from the compressor at a high pressure is transferred to the outdoor heat exchanger by control of the flow path control valve, and condensed at the heat exchanger. The liquefied refrigerant is expanded at the expansion device, and vaporized in the indoor heat exchanger. Since the refrigerant absorbs heat from an environment of the indoor heat exchanger as the refrigerant is vaporized, a temperature of air in the environment of the indoor heat exchanger drops. The air of which temperature is dropped thus is discharged to room, and the refrigerant vaporized at the indoor heat exchanger is introduced into the compressor again. Since cold air in the environment of the indoor heat exchanger is discharged into the room continuously if the foregoing process is repeated, the room is cooled.
On the other hand, when the room is heated, the refrigerant discharged from the compressor is introduced into the indoor heat exchanger by the guide of the flow path control valve. Then, the refrigerant heat exchanges with environmental air, and is condensed. The refrigerant discharges condensing heat to the environment as the refrigerant is condensed, and the air heated by the condensing heat is discharged into the room. The refrigerant condensed at the indoor heat exchanger, passes through, and is expanded at the expansion device, and vaporized at the outdoor heat exchanger. The vaporized refrigerant is introduced into the compressor again. Since the air in the environment of the indoor heat exchanger heated by the condensing heat is discharged into the room continuously if the foregoing process is repeated, the room is heated.
However, the foregoing air conditioner always has a fixed cooling or heating capacity because one indoor unit cools or heats a room, which causes a problem in that the air conditioner always outputs an excessive capacity failing to deal with a load required for cooling or heating the room, properly. According to this, problems are caused, in which fine control of the room temperature is impossible, energy is wasted, and maintenance cost is increased.
In the meantime, the related art air conditioner has no other functions other than the cooling or heating, for an example, a function for removing moisture from the room while maintaining a constant temperature, i.e., a fixed temperature dehumidifying function. For reference, the fixed temperature dehumidifying function can be very useful when humidity of a room is high even if the room temperature is suitable for human activity. Consequently, development of an air conditioner is required, which can output a suitable cooling or heating capacity corresponding to variation of a load required for cooling or heating the room, and has the fixed temperature dehumidifying function.